SILVERBURN PARK : FLAX MILL PROJECT : CONSULTANT BRIEFS

Press Release October 2019  

FIFE CHARITY WINS SHARE OF £1MILLION GIVEAWAY 

A charity that supports young people with mental health conditions has been awarded a share of a £1,000,000 fund supporting under-18s as a part of Persimmon Homes’ hugely successful Building Futures campaign.

Fife Employment Access Trust help young people (and adults) self-manage their conditions and prepare to enter into paid employment. The trust was one of 96 organisations from the length and breadth of the UK to reach the final stage of its Building Futures competition. 

From February to May, Building Futures has also given away £128,000 to 128 organisations supporting young people in sport, education & arts and health throughout England, Scotland and Wales.

The competition culminated in a gala dinner at York Racecourse on Tuesday, where three finalists were each awarded the top prize of £100,000, three the second prize of £50,000 and three the third prize of £20,000. The remaining 87 finalists were handed £5,000 each.

Fife Employment Access Trust represented the health category for Persimmon Homes North Scotland receiving £5,000. Duncan Mitchell at Fife Employment Access Trust, said: “Taking part in Building Future has been a fantastic experience for us and it was so exciting to reach the finals. It was a very emotional evening with such a broad range of groups being represented and we are delighted to have been awarded £5,000."

Stephen Profili, managing Director at Persimmon Homes North Scotland, said: “The Building Futures scheme has been a great success and we had a brilliant evening at York Racecourse celebrating the fantastic work of so many organisations supporting young people in our communities.

“We have been overwhelmed by both the response to the competition, and the hard work and dedication of those involved within all the groups.”

The first, second and third prize winners were decided by a public vote and more than 225,000 votes were cast.

The £100,000 prize winner in the sport category was Scrappers Gym based in Swindon, Portsmouth Down Syndrome Association secured the award for education &arts and the Young People’s Counselling Service Annabelle Davis project in Peterborough was handed the health award.

The second prize awards of £50,000 went to Leeds Rowing Club for sport, UK Astronomy in Milton Keynes for education & arts and Norwich-based Toy Like Me for health.

Andover BMX Club scooped £20,000 for sport in third place, while Wargrave House in Newton-le Willows won the education & arts award and Butterwick Hospice Kidz Club in Stockton was handed the health award.

Iain added: “Getting involved with causes across our region has been an amazing experience and we will continue to support groups and charities through our Community Champions initiative.”

Fife Employment Access Trust are on the shortlist to win a share of Persimmon Homes’ Building Futures £1million pot supporting under-18s nationwide but first they need online votes to win.

Persimmon Homes (Fife) is backing FEAT to be a prize winner at a gala dinner at York Racecourse in October, where cash awards of £100,000, £50,000 or £20,000 will be made to those winning the most online votes.

Duncan Mitchell from FEAT said: “It is a huge achievement to have been selected as a finalist, but now we really need people to get behind us and get voting so that we are in the strongest possible position to earn one of the top 3 cash awards on the night.”

As well as overseeing all the regeneration developments at Silverburn Park, FEAT help people with severe mental health conditions to better self-manage their conditions and prepare for employment, however they also work in schools helping young people to develop strategies to look after their mental health for life.  If funding is secured through this public vote, a stronger investment in their work for young people would be made. He added: “Voting could not be simpler. Just log on to Persimmons and select Fife Employment Access Trust and vote for us we would really appreciate everyone’s support.”

Building Futures is being delivered through the Persimmon Charitable Foundation, which last year donated £620,000 to support children’s sport. 

Through Building Futures, a total of 128 grants of £1,000 have been awarded to groups supporting sport, education & arts and health across Persimmon’s 31 regional businesses and its head office.

Persimmon Homes is an official partner of Team GB and the Persimmon Charitable Foundation enlisted the help of medallists Kat Copeland and Callum Skinner to help determine the three regional finalists for each business division.

One initiative from each category will go on to win £100,000 each through a national award scheme to be decided by a public vote.

As well as the £100,000 first prize, there will be a £50,000 second prize and a £20,000 third prize in each sector, while a further 87 shortlisted projects will each receive £5,000.

Online voting will open on July 23rd and will close at midnight on September 27th 2019.

To support FEAT please visit: https://www.persimmonhomes.com/building-futures/finalists?categoryid=3

You can actually vote once every 24 hours on the site and there's no sign up or registration required, genuinely only takes seconds to cast your vote! 

Fife Employment Access Trust (FEAT) are celebrating a significant award from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to transform the future of Silverburn Park in Leven.

FEAT are a Fife-wide award-winning mental health and employment specialist charity, also celebrating their 25th anniversary this year and are celebrating an award of £374,600 initially by the Fund to enter the formal development phase of the project which ultimately aims to renovate the B-listed former flax mill in the Park into a hub of commercial and community activities ranging from a hostel, café and community space, serving local people and visitors from the Fife Coastal Path.

Duncan Mitchell, General Manager at FEAT, says, “It’s been a long road to get to this point and I have to thank Fife Council and particularly current and previous members of the Levenmouth Area Committee who gave us the opportunity to lease the Park and hopefully spark new life into the site with wider benefits for the local community.”

It was back in 2012 that Fife Council marketed Silverburn as a development opportunity as a way of securing its regeneration, while at the same time safeguarding public access and the natural and historical value, with FEAT being named as the preferred partner.

Since then a wealth of activity has taken place to begin the regeneration of the Park and undertake the feasibility studies, community consultations and detailed designs – as well as fully cost the renovations work.

Duncan adds, “The funding from National Lottery Heritage Fund will now enable us to focus on securing the remainder of the funding needed to complete the construction phase of the project and finalise the designs for the renovation of the mill, as well as maintaining our vision to develop the Park as a place of quiet enjoyment, conserving the cultural values of the landscape and buildings, supporting the health & wellbeing of the community and enhancing the habitat and biodiversity of the environment. The funding will also support FEAT to ensure that meaningful training, volunteering, work experience and employment opportunities are available to their core client group and the surrounding community.

Once we can establish the final project, it will also be an income-generator for the charity and therefore reduce our reliance on grant funding to sustain our core work.”

FEAT will continue to work in partnership with Fife Council throughout this next phase of the programme, as well as Fife Historic Buildings Trust who have extensive experience – and success – of supporting successful implementation of similar projects across the Kingdom.

Further details of FEAT’s vision and aims for the Park are available at www.silverburnpark.co.uk and regular updates on the current daily activities at the Park are on their facebook page. Those developments have included managing volunteer and training programmes, opening a small café last year with plans to open a campsite this year as a pre-cursor to the flax mill re-development. 

FEAT have also delivered a wide variety of community events and this Saturday (29th June) the Friends of Silverburn group are hosting a free family fun day from 12-3 pm.

Brian Robertson, Chair of the Silverburn project Board, adds, “It’s been a long haul to get to this point of the project and we have a vast amount of work to do now to ensure we can raise the remainder of the funding required to transform the Park – however, the support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund is a huge advantage to us when approaching others – they have shown faith in our plans, and our ability to deliver these plans, and everyone connected with FEAT is on cloud 9.”

Cllr Ken Caldwell convener of Levenmouth Area Committee welcomed the news saying: "This is great news for Levenmouth that FEAT has secured funding from the National Lottery Heritage fund. We're in full support of FEAT and are working closely with them on redevelopment plans for Silverburn Park. We want Silverburn to be an asset for the community; somewhere everyone can enjoy."

Christine May, Chair of Fife Historic Buildings Trust said, "All at FHBT are so proud to have helped the Silverburn team to achieve this wonderful financial support, the result of months of hard work and co-operation. We are looking forward to getting stuck in with all the partners involved and to making the dream a reality."

FEAT's vision is to enable and support individuals to reach their full positive mental wellbeing in a culture         where there is no stigma. Employing an inclusive, non-judgemental approach to prepare, support and empower         people to flourish by managing their mental health for life - whatever life does, by: providing service users         with strategies and tools to improve their resilience and employability, creating safe, nurturing, supportive         and compassionate environments to encourage personal growth, developing strategic partnerships with         complementary and diverse organisations that share our vision, working with others to eliminate the stigma on         mental health in the workplace and communities, supporting the welfare and continuous professional development of staff and volunteers so they may continue to provide exceptional services.

Employ Your Mind is an innovative vocational rehabilitation project aimed at developing the employability skills of inpatients and outpatients of Fife mental health services. Recently replicated in Australia, through close         partnership working, the aim of Employ Your Mind is to move students closer towards accessing more mainstream job-seeking services. Employ Your Mind began in June 2012 and we have secured substantial further funding and expect to continue the project beyond March 2020. The Team Lead will manage a team of four learning coaches, and be part of an internationally recognised, world-leading programme delivering cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) and employability skills. Working closely with other Team Leads, you will be part of a number of projects working with students and clients with complex mental health problems, at different stages on their journey towards employment. The role involves leading on the design and delivery of group-based and individual employability and personal development interventions, work placement sourcing/support and delivery and design of CRT to a wide range of participants who study over a 6-month period. The role also involves writing and delivering CRT and bespoke Employ Your Mind training to other professional teams.

As Team Lead, you will have a good working knowledge of the third sector and be used to working in diverse         partnerships. With previous management experience, you will be skilled at presenting to various audiences and         have knowledge of outcome reporting to funders and preparing reports. The Team Lead could be a qualified         occupational therapist or be from a psychology, mental health nursing, clinical social care or other similar         background and will be familiar with client-centred tools which have a broad focus on occupational performance         across all activities of daily living, including self-care, leisure and productivity and personal life         circumstances. You should have some knowledge of CRT and be experienced delivering a range of employability based soft skills to both individuals and groups with complex, severe and enduring mental health conditions. Co-delivering elements of the accredited training programme, the Team Lead will develop new content for the coursework. Based in our offices in Glenrothes with occasional travel, you are also expected to carry out a proportion of work in NHS inpatient/outpatient settings within Fife, with patients with complex mental health conditions, on a one-to-one basis.

Candidates will be required to undergo a PVG check.  Salary from £27,635-£32,974 depending on experience

The closing date for applications is Monday 8th April at 5 pm.

Interviews will be held on 25th April at FEAT offices in Glenrothes

Application packs are available here. Please do not send a  C.V.

If you wish to discuss the role before applying please contact: Wendy@feat.org.uk or Duncan@feat.org.uk or call 01592 759371

For our 25th anniversary, we are holding our AGM on 12th March 2019 in Rothes Halls, Glenrothes.

It would be great to see past staff and board members, service users and volunteers come along and take a quick step back down memory lane and also hear about current exciting plans and developments, as well as the Fife premiere of a short film being made focussing on FEAT.

If you would like to come along, please get in touch as soon as possible, space (and sandwiches) will be limited!